Clack~Clink~Clack
A deep rattling noise of a carriage, could be clearly heard in the solitude forest, located in the outskirts of the Helos Kingdom.
The carriage was surrounded by a dozen of people, wearing rugged brown or black leather armor, there were even a few without any accessories with just a weapon around their waist.
As it was leaded by a brown haired, individual wielding a long sword in his hand, as he immediately frowned and comanded his group to stop, before knocking on the doors of the carriage.
"What is it?. Why did we stop?" A middle-aged voice came from the carriage, as a blonde haired and blue eyed individual got out of the carriage. One could say this individual had an appearance of a typical nobleman.
"Baron Cecil, I'm afraid we need to take a detour, my instincts are telling me this place is not safe, and recently there has been a lot of missing incidents that has been occurring in this place."
"I know this place is dangerous, Isn't that why we hired you and your entire mercenary group Mr Martin." Baron Cecil refuted.
"Now, Now, there's no need to argue in here, we are here with our kids now, Dear Do you really want to gamble with their lives, just to save a little bit of your time and money." a blonde haired, green eyed woman in her late thirties, got out of the carriage, along with her twin boy and a girl who appeared to be just around 10 years old.
"T..Th...That's not what I meant Dear..." Baron Cecil immediately started fumbling after getting critised by his wife, as he gave Martin, a look pleading for help.
"Please don't misunderstand Baroness Cecil, we were indeed paid to protect you guys, Baron is within his rights to criticise us."
"Y..Y....Yes see, Mr Martin is saying it himself."
"Shut up, we are paying him to keep us safe, not to hear your tantrums, now get back in the carriage." Baroness Cecil scolded,before saying
"Mr Martin, you're the experienced one in here, you can do as you please."
The entire Baron family entered the carriage again, to take a detour from this place.
Martin was not only an 'Iron Rank' Adventurer, but also a 'Martial Disciple' Rank Martial Artist, with more than 15 years of experience.
While the rest of his group are not a Ranked individuals like him, but they are highly trained soldiers, capable of passing the test to gain an 'Iron Rank' Adventurer Badge, as each of them could fight atleast three to four ordinary humans on their own.
As his highly experienced instincts told him, that the path that they are threading is exceedingly dangerous, and they should leave this place as fast as they possibly could.
"Alright everyone, we are going to take a little detour from this place." Martin ordered, as the rest of his troops immediately followed his command.
"He he he he hehe he"
As the carriage was about to leave from it's initial place a wierd laughter suddenly rang out from the entire forest.
"Who was that?, Stop hiding and show yourself."
Martin roared loudly, as he immediately held unsheated long sword.
While the rest of the members of Martin's group followed suit, as they surrounded the carriage in circle, to protect the Baron family that hired them from any incoming harm.
"That's impressive, is this what they call the instincts of a true veteran, but unfortunately, you were a bit too late." An unfamiliar voice rangout through the entire Forest.
Soon a Ruffled hair individual jumped in front of the group with a nonchalant expression on his face, while still keeping a mocking grin on his face.
"It's just one individual, let's just deal with him and leave this creepy place." One of the members of Martin's troops screamed in excitement.
Despite that, Martin still kept a frowned expression on his face, as his years of experience, were telling him things aren't as simple as it seems.
As if to prove his conclusion right, the sole individual snapped his fingers, and immediately couple of dozens of men jumped in out of nowhere, and gathered behind the ruffled haired Individual.
The frown in Martin's face immediately turned into an horrorifed expression, as he saw them being outnumbered by atleast three times.
"Look, we are willing to resolve this issue with money, we will pay you guys an amicable amount there's no need for bloodshed." Martin said, as he immediately discarded any thoughts of making any profits from this mission, on the contrary he was more than willing to take money from his own pockets, if he and his group could live this darn place unscathed.
"We'll take, what we want from your dead bodies, but if it makes you feel any better let me tell you, we will be keeping all the women alive." The ruffle haired man said with an evil smirk as he glanced at one of the female warriors in Martin's troops and gave her a wink.
"I'd rather kill myself right here and now." the female mercenary immediately retorted, noticing that bandits glance.
"Well, we have a few men in our strongholds, who don't mind doing it with a dead body, so go ahead and be my guest."
Hearing that a sudden chill went through that woman's spine, as these bandits don't plan on leaving her alone, even after her death.
Even Martin who tried to maintain a calm and composed expression, felt a crack appearing on his face as he growled furiously.
"I am a 'Martial Disciple', do you guy's really want take it to the end."
Martin lifted his long sword and pointed towards the ruffled haired individual in front of him, as his long sword emitted a light blue hue.
"A sword Martial Art, and you can manipulate qi into your sword, it seems you weren't lying when you said you're a 'Martial Disciple.' " the ruffled haired Individual said, as no panic or fear seemed to appear on his face.
Martin immediately frowned as he felt something was amiss, No matter how outnumbered he was, he was still a Ranked individual, if he wanted to he could easily escape from this situation, as ordinary people could only dream of catching him.
'Unless he is also...'
As if to prove Martin's hypothesis, the ruffle haired bandit, drew his sword out, with the amount of Mana being dozens of times denser than Martin's sword Qi, enveloping all over his sword.
"Well, you see I'm a 'Two Star' Swordsman and yes I do plan on taking this to the end." Bandit said with a huge smile plastered all over his face, as he witnessed the face of Martin and his entire troop, turn pale blue in an instant.
The entire mercenary troop immediately lowered their weapon, as they seemed to have completely lost their will to fight.
Soon a particular individual among Martin's mercenary troop dashed in and grabbed into the ruffled haired bandits legs while he cried out.
"Sir please.. please don't kill me, I beg you..please..I'm willing to serve as your servant, no I don't deserve that honor , I..I..I am willing to be your dog."
The rest of the mercenary trooping watching this scene became even more embarrassed, watching this scene infront of them.
"Nrak !, What the hell are you doing ?, Sir Martin took you in when you had nowhere else to go, and now this how you pay him back, where's your pride ?."
"Shut up!, Is it pride that's gonna keep me alive, let me give a piece of advice if you guys want to live, hurry up and grab on the leg's of this superior entity."
"You Scumbag..." One of the mercenary cried out.
At this moment Martin couldn't even feel his own soul, as every single thing in this mission kept going on a completely wrong direction, from arriving in this crappy place, being completely outnumbered, to meeting an opponent way above their league and now their own member abandoning them, this clearly had to be the worst day of his life, and it seems it might even be the last day of his life as well.
"Ha ha haha haha haha" A loud laughter was left out of the ruffled hair bandit's mouth, as this inner conflict, appeared to provide him with a new source of entertainment he has been missing, in a desolate place like this.
Wanting to enjoy this surge of choas and dispirited looks of those Mercenaries,which seemed to tingle his sadistic instincts, he immediately ordered his men to tie every single mercenary present here, along with the Baron family sitting inside the carriage.
Soon the Bandits gathered everyone around, and tied them with a Mana injested robes, which seems capable of holding even a '2 Star' entity.
"The moment I saw you I could tell you were not an ordinary individual, I could feel a divine hollow behind you the moment you entered." The mercenary who betrayed his group kept on praising the bandit.
The ruffle haired individual smirked as he felt his ego getting stroked.
"I'm the second strongest individual in our camp, the result was obvious from the very beginning."
"~Gasp~, there's still someone stronger than you serior, I..I..don't believe you."
"He is the leader of our camp, and a very strong Martial Artist."
"T..T..Then he must atleast be 'Martial Master' as I refuse to believe there's someone stronger than you, senior while being at the same rank as you"
"You're hypothesis would have been true, a few weeks ago, but our leader ranked up just recently."
"~Gasp~ 'Martial Grandmaster' , Oh God ! " Nark exclaimed "See what did I tell you guys, I am the smartest one in our troop." As he soon started taunting his former group,which has been tied and getting dragged along by those bandits.
"Nark ! you fucking traitor, we took you in, we fed you and this is how you repay us." One of the mercenary tied, cried out as tears started whelling up in his eyes.
"Hmph, If choosing greatness when I see one makes me a traitor, than I'll gladly be one."
The ruffled haired bandit immediately grinned, as he saw a grown man crying, and those Mercenaries fighting over themselves.
'As I thought, witnessing such scenes is worth keeping this insect alive for a while.'
And soon the group reached the deeper parts of the forest in one of the large abandoned cave, which seemed to be the stronghold of this group, as there was a signboard with the word 'Mountain of Solace' engraved on it.